Orange launches its 5G network by making quality of service its priority

Press release

Paris, 26 November 2020

Orange launches its 5G network by making quality of service its priority

Orange announces the launch of its 5G network in 15 French¹ municipalities, as of 3 December, 2020, including Nice, Marseille, Le Mans, Angers and Clermont Ferrand. By the end of the year, more than 160 municipalities will be covered with 5G.

This 3.5GHz 5G launch brings speeds up to three to four times faster than 4G to meet changing customer needs. Only 3.5GHz frequencies allow a true 5G experience.

Orange is thus fulfilling its role of a leading operator by providing the best possible support for the evolution of French consumption patterns, allowing them to benefit from the best possible network quality, even in the densest areas. By contributing to the digitisation of French companies, 5G will also be a powerful lever for competitiveness, thanks to, among other things, connected objects and artificial intelligence. 5G, deployed in 3.5GHz frequency bands, allows for real browsing comfort, reduced latency and almost instantaneous download speeds, even on the move.

Stéphane Richard, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of the group, declared: “This new technology is a breakthrough innovation that will allow all of our customers, both individuals and businesses to benefit from unprecedented quality of service and to develop new uses. The deployment will be done gradually and in a constructive dialogue with all local authorities, in parallel with our efforts to expand coverage of the French territory in 4G. As a responsible operator, Orange is committed to offering the best to its customers to meet their growing connectivity needs, thanks to more efficient technology that is more energy efficient.”

A gradual deployment of the 5G network

On 1 October, during the auction, Orange obtained the largest share of the frequency blocks involved, with 90 MHz of spectrum. This deployment focuses mainly on these new 3.5GHz frequencies and may be supplemented by the use of 2.1GHz² frequencies.

                                                      
The operator has chosen to initially cover areas that are already heavily used in order to avoid any risk of saturation. In fact, between September 2019 and September 2020, data usage on Orange and Sosh tariff plans increased by 40%, carrying a risk of saturation of the current networks by 2022. This is why the use of these new 5G frequencies, according to Orange is the best answer for the future.